Brussels, Mar. 6 : Perturbed by the recent terror attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore, US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton has said that the situation in Pakistan is threatening, as it is facing serious internal security challenges.

Talking to NATO foreign ministers in a meeting here, Clinton compared the Lahore attack with the terror attacks on Mumbai, and termed it as an `eerie replica'of the 26/11 incident.

Brussels - NATO on Wednesday welcomed the rejection by the Afghan Independent Election Committee of calls for early elections, saying the scheduled August 20 date would give the alliance enough time to provide the necessary security during the vote.

While it is a "100 per cent Afghan decision," NATO and its secretary general "welcome this decision by the Independent Election Committee," said NATO spokesman James Appathurai.

Brussels - The countries that use the European Union's single currency, the euro, are so divided on the question of issuing common bonds that there is no realistic chance of creating them at present, the EU's top official said Wednesday.

"The idea is interesting, but there is very, very clear opposition from a large number of member states," European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso told journalists in Brussels.

Brussels - The European Union's top official on Wednesday challenged member states to set up an EU-wide system for overseeing its financial markets at once, rather than waiting three years as originally proposed.

A report published last week by former International Monetary Fund chief Jacques de Larosiere called for the creation of such a system after three years' trial, but "we say this should be done immediately," European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso said.

Brussels - The presence of more women in the workplace could help lift the European Union out of recession and mitigate the impact of future financial crises, officials in Brussels said Tuesday.

"Discrimination produces inefficiency. And it is precisely during times of crises that we should be most active," said European Equals Opportunity Commissioner Vladimir Spidla at the launch of a European campaign against the gender pay gap.